The Best Week Ever!
by JLW
Summary: A trip from the Capitol to the 74th hunger games arena. Set before Catching fire. R&R please
1. Chapter 1

"This is going to be great!" I announced excitedly, stepping carefully off of the hovercraft. The ride had been smooth, as usual, and now we had finally arrived at the arena. We were one of the first groups to go and see the arena of the 74th Hunger Games. A whole week we had here! I couldn't wait to get started!

"We're here?" My younger brother, Glow, stepped through the sliding doors of the craft, his eyes blinking in the midday sun. His recently dyed hair reflected the sunlight perfectly, I told him that purple was the best colour for him. I grinned back at him,

"Yeah, here we are. I can't wait, can you?" I smiled fondly at my brother, there was only a year between us and we were best friends. He reached over and pulled on one of my green locks of hair,

"Of course I can't, silly. Let's go and see where we're staying!"

My Mother had booked the trip as a surprise for Glow and me. We had no idea what it was going to be like. We had watched the games, of course. I was secretly hoping that Thresh, the tall one from District 11 was going to win. He was gorgeous! But instead the two from 12 did instead. What a shock for us in the Capitol! We would have never have guessed that they would let two people win, but it was nice all the same. The star crossed lovers from District 12. How romantic...

"Glee! We're here!" Glow's voice snapped through my daydream. I focussed my eyes on where he was looking. Our guide was stood on a raised platform with a clear plastic ball to his right. Just like the reaping ball, it had slips of white paper inside. The guide cleared his mouth to speak, burnt orange curls bounce in a halo around his head,

"Hello and welcome to the 74th Hunger Games arena. May the odds be ever in your favour!" His velvet voice brought silence to the murmuring crowd, now the adventure was about to begin!

"If you hadn't noticed, there are twelve families visiting the arena this week, this reaping ball will determine what suite you will be staying in" He motioned to the ball next to him. "First I will choose who will use the District 1 suite" He reached into the ball and started to pull out the slips of paper.

Ours is District 11. It's not bad, but it could have been better. I wouldn't have minded the luxury of District 1, but if 11 is what we get, then it will have to do. Before we go anywhere though, we are taken through to an ice blue themed lounge to watch the reaping of the games on the big television screen on one of the walls. I've seen them all before, but I still feel my heart flutter as the gorgeous Thresh takes his place on the platform, and I can feel the tears form in my eyes when I see The Katniss's sister being held back by her cousin, sobbing into his shirt.

Once the reaping was over, the screen went black and the lights came back up again. I looked around and saw one lady dobbing into a handkerchief, sure the last reaping was sad, but it wasn't that bad!

Glow and I made our way from the television room and down the corridor towards our room. The walls were filled with stills from the games: and overhead picture of the arena, the red headed, sly girl peering through the leaves, her face caked in mud, there was a picture of Peeta disguised under the mud and sticks, looking almost invisible. The picture by my door was of Katniss holding onto Rue, a spear protruding from her stomach, that clip got thousands of viewings online, it was a beautiful moment. I shake the thoughts from my mind and throw a grin back in Glow's general direction before pushing the door open.

I gasped in surprise, the room wasn't disgusting and muddy as I had been expecting. The bedroom and bathroom were of the best quality. There were lots of pictures of District 11 and its victors; there weren't many I had to admit. The walls were painted with a golden straw kind of colour; it shone under the light from the coloured bulbs embedded in the ceiling. The beds were made of something that looked like straw but it was very soft to the touch. I knew I was going to like staying here.

"Hey look! I think I found the timetable for this week!" Glow's voice rang out and I skipped to his side happily and looked down at the paper in his hand, it read:

_Monday:_

_General exploration of the arena 9:00am – 5:30pm_

_Tuesday:_

_Tour around the Cornucopia. Re-enactment of the bloodbath 9:00am – 5:30pm_

_Wednesday:_

_Sponsors and Mentors, their story 9:00am – 5:30pm_

_Thursday:_

_Final 8, interviews and tour around the death sites._

_Friday:_

_Peeta and Katniss, love story from the beginning 9:00am – 5:30pm_

_Saturday:_

_Cato and Thresh plus re-enactment of battle 9:00am – 5:30pm_

_Sunday:_

_Victor's battle plus re-enactment 9:00am – 5:30pm _

I turned to Glow, smile plastered onto my face, "This is going to be the best week ever!"

****

A/N: Review please! Should I carry it on, or just leave it as this? I've put _I am ready_ on hold for the moment, this is the make up for it :P Hope you enjoyed it :D


	2. Chapter 2

_Monday:_

_General exploration of the arena 9:00am – 5:30pm_

Breakfast had been an interesting affair. We had all traipsed down to the dining hall at around 8:00am in an assortment of groups. Glow and I were second to last to arrive, followed by an unfashionable family with almost no alterations at all! Only the oldest male had a thin gold tattoo winding from his wrist to his shoulder, it was a cool design; I might get one when we get back.

Anyway, back to breakfast. There were twelve counters to choose from, it wasn't hard to guess why and the big numbers, 1-12, above each of them made it just a bit more obvious.

Everyone appeared to be going to the District 1 counter, how stupid, we were here for adventure and excitement, so why were people eating the finest bread? I headed towards the District 11 counter and Glow went for the District 12 one. We met up at the table closest to the door and sat down to eat our breakfast.

"What did you get?" I ask cautiously, there appeared to be a slightly blackened brick type loaf of bread on his plate,

"It's the District 12 bread; the server at the counter told me how they make it. It's really interesting!" Glow took a bite, his mouth turned down in disgust but he continued chewing anyway. I looked down at my District 11 bread, it was moon shaped and covered in some sort of seed. I carefully pulled off a corner; the inside was a dark brown, like mud compared to our fluffy, white Capitol bread.

"Go on then, how do they make it?" I ask curiously, Glow swallowed his mouthful of bread, with some difficulty I notice, before opening his mouth to speak to me,

"You know how District 12 mines coal, yeah?" I nod before taking a bite of my bread. It's not awful, but it is very chewy, it has a kind of woody flavour but if I concentrate hard enough I can just make out a slight tang of fruit, from the orchards, I expect.

"Well, once they've made the dough for the bread they throw it in the embers of a coal fire, that's why all the loaves are different shapes; it's completely random how it will turn out!"

"That's really cool, Glow!" I stand up and pull him up beside me, "Come on, we can eat while we walk, it's time to go into the arena!"

__

Wow. I'm actually standing on an actual plate where an actual tribute stood! I squealed with excitement. This was going to be so much fun! Glow was in another room along the way, we were going to meet each other at the mouth of the Cornucopia. I shuffled a bit on the podium, my rucksack rattling against my back. We had all been given a rucksack filled with, a 2 litre bottle of water, a map of the arena and a flare in case we got lost. A metallic voice sounded over the intercom,

_Launch in 60 seconds_

I grinned; I was almost in the arena! It was going to be amazing! We could explore the woods and the corn field that Thresh ruled over and the river and the Career tributes camp and the...My thoughts were cut off as the launch pad clicked and rose up through the ceiling, my smile was almost reaching my ears now, _only a few more seconds and I'd be in the arena!_

My pod left the tunnel with a pop. The golden cornucopia reflected the sun's rays into my eyes, this was amazing! The anthem started to play so I placed my hand on my heart and sang along too, as did everyone else. The tributes may not show any respect for the Capitol, but we certainly did. My eyes found Glow's, he was across the circle to me, my happiness reflected in his smile. The anthem ended and our plates clicked, several holographic images flicked up by the cornucopia, safety protocols, how dull. I headed towards the opening of the Cornucopia to meet with Glow.

"Map ready?" I asked,

"Yeah! Where do you want to go first?" Glow was practically bouncing with excitement, I laughed; this holiday was going to be amazing!

"Why don't we head towards the cave?"

"But that will take ages, Glee!" Glow wanted to explore something, I didn't think he would be able to walk all morning; he would miss out on seeing everything else.

"Don't worry! We can rent a hover bike!" The Capitol had left a long line of hover bikes for us to borrow; it meant we could get around more easily.

"Come on then, let's go!" We headed towards the bikes and grabbed two before setting off through the woods. We had been cruising happily for 5 minutes when a flash of red caught my eye,

"Stop! I just saw someone up that tree!" Glow's bike came to a silent stop; he hopped off and walked back to where I was pointing,

"Hello?" he called, there was no reply,

"Maybe they're hurt? Should we take a closer look?" I questioned, without waiting for a reply I grabbed onto Glow's arm and dragged him through the trees. When we got to the base of the tree I gasped, it wasn't a person; it was a model! The red I had seen was her vibrant hair, now we were closer I could see the sly face and wide set eyes, it was Foxface from District 5! It must have been made of some sort of plastic because it looked very like her, but it's unnatural stillness told me that it was just pretend,

"Wow" I breathed,

"Hey Glee, there must be more models like this around the arena! Can we go and look for them? Please?" Glow begged

"Of course we can! Come on!" I ran back to where we had left the bikes, I hopped onto one before whizzing of through the dense forest. This was so much fun!


	3. Chapter 3

_Tuesday:_

_Tour around the Cornucopia. Re-enactment of the bloodbath 9:00am – 5:30pm_

Today, both Glow and I took the bread from the District 4 counter. It was fish shaped and had a salty taste from the bits of green seaweed that had been baked into it,

"Do you think we'll get anything else for breakfast? Or is it just bread for the entire week?" Glow asked, his mouth full,

"I don't know, maybe there will be something else tomorrow" I replied, "The others look bored of bread as well"

I looked around; there was a vibrantly coloured man at the District 2 counter, he had straight blue hair that just brushed the high orange collar of his coat and the unaltered family sat around a pile of District 8 bread and they were chatting animatedly with each other. The electric doors slid open and our guide stepped through the open doorway,

"Ok gang! My name is Exim, but you can call me Ex. Today we're going to be re-enacting the battle at the Cornucopia, please can I have two volunteers from each District Suite so there are twenty four players in total!"

Glow and I stepped forward for District 11, it was lucky there were just two of us, I could see three young children from the District 3 rooms arguing over who was going to have a go, only to have their parents step forward and volunteer instead. It was a struggle not to laugh, but the man with the golden tattoo guffawed loudly and received dark glares from the children.

"Alright? Let's go!" We followed the Ex out of the room and towards the glass lift at the end of the corridor, once we were all inside, Ex pushed some buttons and we shot off into the sky.

__

Once again we stood on our plates and sang the anthem, hands on hearts and smiles on our faces. Once we were done, the holograms flashed up again, but instead of the safety protocols from yesterday there were clips from the bloodbath at the Cornucopia, all the deaths. We gathered around the base of the Cornucopia and waited for instructions

Ex shouted out, "In the 74th Hunger Games, 11 people were defeated at the Cornucopia." He paused, "And today we will be finding out how each one happened!"

A cheer came up from the crowd, we were all excited. When we turned around again we discovered that several fake tributes had been put in place around the golden horn and there were several set further out, they were numbered 1-11.

The first group of models that Glow and I looked at were of the boy from District 9 and Katniss, Clove, from district two, was set further away, her hand gripping a vicious looking knife. The District 9 boy had splattered blood in Katniss's face and there was a knife stuck in his back. Katniss was gripping onto a loaf of bread and a bright orange backpack; there was a look of surprise mixed with disgust on her face, it could have been funny if there wasn't blood all over her. Glow stepped on something and it made a clicking noise, a video screen flashed up, it played the death over and over again. We moved on.

The next model we looked at was Thresh, in all his glory. He was stood by the corn field with his arms out ready to catch any stupid tributes who decided to run his way, he had left himself open for attack from the Careers though, it was lucky that he hadn't been killed. But he was gorgeous...

We carried on like this for the next two hours and once we were done we gathered around Ex, who was standing by a rack of strange goggles,

"Next we're going to do the re-enactment, could the volunteers step forward please?"

Once we had moved into a group, Ex explained what the goggles are for,

"These are virtual reality goggles, you put them on and you will be immediately transported into the Games as one of the Tributes. It's all pretend so don't worry about getting hurt!"

I grinned, these goggles sounded amazing, I couldn't wait to have a go with them. Ex handed them out randomly, the District number of your tribute was on one side and whether it was the girl or boy was on the other side. I was the boy from District 6, I moved to a plate and put on the goggles, it was amazing! It was like I was actually in the games! There was Cato to the left of me and Peeta on the right. Ex's voice cut through the virtual reality, "You can start now!"

I ran towards a sword that was leant against the Cornucopia, it was like a feather in my hands, but that was because it wasn't real. A few other tributes came towards me, but I cut them with my sword, once they were hit they fizzled out of my vision and the game. The cripple from 10 was limping in my direction and I raised my sword in preparation but before he could get any closer, my goggle went black and the words, _Game Over. Please remove the goggles and leave the game._ Damn, someone must have hit me.

__

On the way back to the dining hall I discover that it was Glow who had killed me, he had been Katniss and he was gloating all the way back,

"Did you see it, Glee? It was amazing! I lifted up the bow and BAM!"

"No I didn't see it, Glow, I was the one you shot, remember?"

"I didn't know it was you, I'm sorry"

"It's alright, Glow. There's always next time" I add with a wicked smile.

**A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews, they're really nice. I hope you liked this chapter, and if you did, why don't you review? I know you want to :P**


	4. Chapter 4

_Wednesday:_

_Sponsors and Mentors, their story 9:00am – 5:30pm_

"Right guys! Today we'll be looking at the Mentors of the tributes and their sponsors!"

Ex took us down the corridor. We passed a few more photos; one was of Peeta and Katniss just after they had won. I didn't really like it that there were two victors; I was looking forward to the final fight. Glow was more annoyed though, he had made loads of bets at school with his friends, and when the two winners were announced, his friends claimed that the bets he made didn't count and kept his money, that's friends for you, hey? I think he lost about 100 credits; he was in such a sulk for weeks after! This holiday cheered him up though, luckily, I didn't think I would be able to cope with a moody Glow for a week.

Once we were inside the room and sat comfortably in one of the red velvet armchairs, Ex flicked off the lights and pressed a button for the screen to come up on the wall. The first film was of interviews and back stories of the mentors, what they thought of their tributes, what games they were in, stuff like that.

Haymitch, the drunk from 12, had managed to stay halfway sober for his interview. He remained sullen throughout the questioning but when he was shown the recap of District 12's reaping, and his epic dive from the stage, he collapsed into a fit of giggles, that's where the images were cut. They blank space was filled with pictures of his tributes, Katniss and Peeta. The commentary for it was, _and, yet again, I don't think District 12 will have much luck, do you think perhaps there's something up with their mentor?_ Followed by an attempt to mask the giggle, the only thing sadder than a bad joke was someone actually finding the bad joke funny. What made it worse was the fact that both these tributes had actually gone onto win.

The mentor from District 4, Finnick, although gorgeous, spoke a little too much. I prefer the strong, silent type, like some of the tributes of past years. Anyway, Finnick talked about how he though his tribute could win this year, how they were good kids, they were good fighters. The tributes had ended up going with the career pack, they had made some interesting kills, and some people had talked about for days.

I couldn't remember the name of the person who mentored Rue, but he seemed to think that she didn't have a chance. He said, "I've seen her fly though the trees, but there's no fight in her. No fight and no chance". She had got to the final eight, at least.

Once the film was over, several tables came up through the floor; on them were the gifts tributes had received from their sponsors. The food was represented by a plastic model, but the weapons and other presents they had gained during the Games were real.

The person who had received the most by far was Katniss. The others had gotten some bread or a knife, but Katniss had the burn medicine, the District 11 bread, lots of food that she shared with Peeta, the sleeping syrup and the medicine she was given at the feast. She must have had at least 30% of the sponsors. Clove had been sent an extra knife for some reason, she had picked up enough at the Cornucopia, but her mentor had decided she needed another one. It sparkled under the bright lights on the ceiling. Glow picked up the knife and turned it over in his hands, "This is so cool, Glee! I can't wait to tell everybody back at home!" He turned to Ex, "Can we try on the body armour?"

Ex said that we could, so Glow went over to Cato's table and pulled off this long, see through, body shaped thing. It was made of some sort of flexible plastic and it reached from the wearer's feet to his neck, leaving his face unprotected. I ran over to Thresh's table and grabbed his before anyone else could steal it, "Come on, Glow! Let's see how well they fit" I giggled, the suits were really big and I didn't think they would fit anyone in the room, let alone me! Glow had already pulled his on, and it fitted. Was he really that big? Or were the tributes smaller than we thought. Ex must have sensed my confusion because he sidled up next to me,

"The body armour readjusts itself to fit for maximum protection, why don't you try that one on?"

I pulled the suit on eagerly and, as Ex had said, it fitted perfectly. I span around, delighted, and then I called across to Glee, "I bet I could beat you now, brother!"

"Get real, Glee. I could take you any day!" He grinned back, before I could continue, Ex interrupted,

"There's all the time in the world for fighting on Saturday, lets save it for now, hey?"

"Okay" I turned to Glow, "Come and see all this other cool stuff, Glow. It's amazing!"

**A/N: Sorry for it being late, and short. My laptop died yesterday so I couldn't do anything. Please review! Reviews are like cookies, really nice and more-ish! :P**


	5. Chapter 5

_Thursday:_

_Final 8, interviews and tour around the death sites._

Today we were going to find out about the final tributes in the Games. I couldn't really remember who there was left at the end, only Peeta, Katniss, Cato, Thresh and Amy, the girl from District 5, so I was looking forward to today. I was going to ask Ex where we were going to go first, but someone else got there before me,

"Please, please, please can we do Rue's death?" It was the girl from the unaltered family, "Her death was so sweet, please? I could be Katniss!" Her idea sounded good, Rue's death had been popular in the Capitol. Her family was staying in the District 12 suite, so it made sense that she was Katniss, it also made sense that I should be Rue.

"Oh please, Ex. Can I be Rue? It will be so much fun!"

"Of course you can, why don't we go now?" He headed towards the sliding door that would take us to the arena. I looked around for Glow, he was chatting to a boy from the District 7 suite, and I thought it best not to interrupt. My eyes found the girl from the unaltered family and I walked over to her confidently, maybe we could be friends.

"Hi! I'm called Glee, what's your name?" I smiled at her, she didn't look awful, but she should definitely colour her hair. The sandy, straw like stuff hung down to her shoulders, she wouldn't even have to go too far from what colour it is now, I could suggest it too her later.

"I'm Xylsee O'Connor. Nice to meet you!" She stuck out her hand, and I shook it happily, her drab appearance definitely didn't reflect her personality, getting to know her could be fun!

"Hurry up, slowcoaches!" Ex called to us, we were trailing behind quite a bit,

"We're coming!" Xylsee and I ran forward to catch the doors before they closed, "So why haven't you changed how you look?" I ask, I was being forward, I knew, but I just had to know!

"My family and I belong to a group of people called the Naturalists, we don't believe in altering ourselves aesthetically for other people. We come as we are."

"But why? Surely it's better to fit in with the crowd?" I didn't understand why people would do this to themselves; sacrifice their potential beauty for some silly cause!

"We give the money we don't spend on surgery to people less well off than ourselves" She explained, I didn't seem to be offending her, which was a good thing,

"But everyone's fine in the Capitol, who would you give money to?"

"We spend it on better quality terressa and oil for the Districts."

"What's te-" I was interrupted by Ex,

"We're here; would my Katniss and Rue please step forward?"

I grinned and stepped forward with Xylsee. I lay down in the middle of the clearing and Xylsee stood near the edge, ready to run in when we started. Ex flicked a switch and some commentary started, Xylsee took this as the cue for her come running in. She flicked her hair about her face and ran in such a silly way that I struggled not to laugh. "Katniss! Katniss come and save me!" I rolled about in the dirt. I was vaguely aware of the commentary, it was something like _Rue and Katniss formed a brief alliance which ended when Rue was defeated the next day while attempting to foil the Career pack's plans. _

"I'm here, Rue. What's wrong? What's wrong?"

"I've been stabbed, Katniss! Sing to me!" I reached over and grabbed her leg, pulling her down beside me with a thump

"Okay, what would you like me to sing?"

"I don't know, what's popular now?"

"I don't know either, shall we just dance?" Xylsee asked, standing up and brushing herself down.

"I think we shall" I replied, jumping up beside her, we span around until we were giddy with laughter.

"Time to go, you two." Ex called us over, "We still have to see some of the interviews!"

__

We had already seen all of the interviews, but this time through we all knew who won. Peeta's declaration of love for Katniss no longer seemed so shocking. We were all itching to leave at the end of it.

"Next we're going to look at Clove's death, so could I have the boy from the District 11 suite and the girl from the District 2 suite!" Shouted Ex, we were all talking to each other so he was finding difficult to get himself heard. Glow must have heard him though; he stepped forwards, but turned back and called something to someone. The girl stepped up next to him, she looked nice enough. We all grabbed a hover bike and made our way to the Cornucopia.

We arrived in less than five minutes. The people took their places. There was the girl and boy from 2, being Clove and Cato, there was Glow and there was Xylsee being Katniss again. A whistle blew for them to start.

The girl ran over to Xylsee and pushed her over, she sat on top of her to stop her getting away, just like Clove did in the games. She's reaching into her pocket for the imaginary knife when someone lumbered her way. We were at a distance so I couldn't see clearly who it was. It should have been Glow but he was just so big! The way he grabbed the girl from 2 and waved her about in the air like she was a doll was so scary! He could do that to me! What happened to my little brother? He lifted up his hand and brought it down on the girl's head, she went limp and he dropped her on the floor. Then he went after Xylsee, grabbing her then letting her go. Finally he ran off into the woods and the boy from 2 ran up to the girl and held her hand, a canon fired. The players walked back towards the group, smiles on their faces. Glow was back to his normal size,

"Glow! How did they make you look so big?" I hugged him, glad that he was back to normal,

"It was a kind of bodysuit; it made me really strong too! It was so cool! I'm going to buy one when we get back home!"

"That's really good, Glow! Let's get back so we can see what there is for dinner!"

We ran back to our hover bikes, grinning. My brief moment of worry had been put at ease. Everything was alright again.

**A/N: I hope you like it :D I didn't update yesterday because I was out all day, sorry *shame faced*. Please review :D**


	6. Chapter 6

_Friday:_

_Peeta and Katniss, love story from the beginning 9:00am – 5:30pm_

Over a breakfast of District 9's bread, Glow asked me what we were doing today,

"We're finding out about Peeta and Katniss, you know, about how they fell in love"

Glow paused, his mouth hanging open, "Love? Ugh! That's disgusting!" some of the bread he had been eating splattered onto the table,

"No Glow, you are disgusting. I think today could be really interesting actually." Glow was disgusting, he was eating like an Avox, throwing hunks of bread to the back of his mouth and chewing loudly; it wasn't even as if he had the excuse that he had no tongue! I could ask Mum to enrol him in etiquette classes when we got back home; that would sort him out.

"Yeah well, I'm going to go with Rayeed, the boy from the District 7 suite, I was talking to him yesterday, remember? You can go with your new friend from 12, so it's not like I'm abandoning you." Glow continued chewing his bread, I was a bit upset that he was going off without me, but it was good that he was making friends, I was making friends too. It wasn't really common in my class to get on with your sibling like Glow and I did, so maybe it was good that we were branching out.

"Oh, okay then. Hey look, Ex is here, let's go!"

__

I tried talking to Xylsee, I really did, but she was deep in conversation with her brother, he had the same coloured hair as his sister except that it was longer and pulled back into a scruffy knot at the nape of his neck, he was hideous, even the smallest amount of makeup could improve his looks entirely! Anyway, Xylsee was busy so I was left by myself while we watched the film about Katniss and Peeta, I really got into it!

Basically it was lots of clips of the two of them plus some commentary over it, there were things like:

_Although Peeta did not show it at the Reaping, he was already deeply besotted with Katniss Everdeen._

_When the Career pack had trapped Katniss in a tree, Peeta stayed awake all night to make sure she wasn't caught._

_Peeta stepped in to save Katniss when she was spotted by Cato, endangering his life to save hers._

_When it was announced that two competitors could win the Games, Katniss could not conceal her joy. She set out the next morning to find Peeta._

_Katniss nursed Peeta back to health, risking giving away her position to the other tributes._

Once the film was over, Ex flicked on the lights, "Time to enter the arena!"

We were going to visit the vital points in Peeta and Katniss' relationship, such as the tracker jacker tree, the river, and the cave. All the models from when we explored the arena were still there, and I hoped we would be able to look at all of the Katniss and Peeta ones.

"Everyone grab a bike! We're heading to the cave!" Ex shouted. There was a crowd around the bikes and I was left with the last one, all the bikes were brand new so there was nothing wrong with this bike, but I would have rather had one of the first bikes. A call from behind me made me jump,

"Hey, Glee! Sorry for blanking you earlier, we were discussing the conditions in the Districts." It was Xylsee, "Want to ride together?"

"It's okay Xylsee. Come on, I'll show you all the tributes!" I jumped on my bike and sped off, Xylsee following me close behind, a flash of red passed me, "That's Amy!" I shouted over my shoulder. I flew over a pale looking body surrounded by a pool of blood, "Xylsee, that's the cripple, remember him? Wasn't it so cool when the Careers found him?" I didn't hear a reply but I continued on anyway, "Oh look, It's Rue! See, right there, up in the tree? She could climb really well!" Xylsee didn't answer me again and we kept on like this for the rest of the journey, when we arrived at the cave, I got off my bike and turned to her,

"Why didn't you answer me?" Xylsee was pale and shaking, "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine" She replied, "I just suffer from motion sickness, and that huge puddle of blood that we passed didn't make me feel any better, how could you do that to a person?"

"Why are you worrying? It's only a game. Will you feel better soon?"

"I should, come on let's catch up with the rest of the group!"

We both jogged to catch up with everyone else, they were just entering the cave, Ex's voice echoed around the stone,

"This is where Katniss and Peeta's relationship really developed; here is where they shared their first kiss, which reached a viewing rating of 10 million in the Capitol alone. They were sent meals from the sponsors, and Katniss was given sleep syrup so she could go to the feast and retrieve the medicine for Peeta. She survived, but only just, if Thresh had been just a few seconds slower than he was, Katniss could have received injuries which would have led to her bleeding to death on the floor of this very cave."

Xylsee and I had made it into the cave now, there were more tribute models in here as well, there were a few of Katniss and Peeta in various spots around the cave. One of them huddled together in the sleeping bag, another of Katniss sitting worriedly by Peeta who had a wet cloth over his forehead, the droplets of water on his face looked almost real, it was amazing! Finally I saw one of Katniss lying on the floor with blood pooling around her head, Peeta was sat a way off, but he was reaching out as if he was trying to touch her. I heard Xylsee leave behind me, she must have seen the blood. I ran out after her,

"Not feeling too good?" She was shaking again,

"It'll pass, maybe tomorrow will be better." She smiled weakly.

**A/N: I hope you liked it :) Reviews are welcome :D**


	7. Chapter 7

_Saturday:_

_Cato and Thresh plus re-enactment of battle 9:00am – 5:30pm_

"Come on! Hurry up Glee! We're going to be late!" Glow had been waiting excitedly for today all week, it was the re-enactment of the famous cornfield fight, the one where gorgeous Thresh was beaten by the blonde, sword-wielding, maniac, Cato. I bet 50 credits that Thresh would win, but only half of it was mine really, the rest might have 'accidently' fallen from Glow's piggy bank and into my pocket. He hadn't noticed yet, he had just emptied all his money into his wallet, we hadn't met anything to spend our money on yet, I hoped it stayed that way.

"Glee! Eat faster, I want to be the first there, I have to be Thresh! Please!" Glow was on his knees now; he had slid down from his chair and managed to spill loads of crumbs on the floor at the same time. It was fair, I suppose, I had been playing Rue all week, it was nice that he had a chance to have a go.

"Please can you take pictures? I brought my camera, please? I want to show all my friends when we get back!" His face was that of a pitiful puppy's, eyes wide and shining and his mouth was turned down in a sort of frown, the only thing that was missing was a wagging tail! I laughed,

"Of course I will, Glow. Here, pass me the camera." Glows threw me the camera, it was a pretty old one; it was a silvery colour with a tiny screen at the back, "Where did you get this from, Glow? It looks ancient!"

"I got from the antiques store; you know the one behind the school? I passed it in the window and thought it looked cool, the shop owner said it was a 'digital camera', not holographic like everyone else has." Glow looked pleased with his purchase, but he hadn't considered a vital part,

"How do you get the pictures off of this thing?" I asked

"There's a lead, I left it at home, but it transfers all your pictures from there onto your online profile in no time at all, it was a great buy!" Glow had an answer and I was gobsmacked, never before had my little brother thought something like this through like this before, before I could congratulate him on growing a mind, Ex shouted over us,

"Come on, guys! Time to go!"

"Glee! We could have gone by now if it wasn't for you asking about the camera!"

"Sorry! Let's go now, before we waste any more time!"

__

"Right, I need the boys from the District 2 and 11 suites please!" Ex called, Glow stepped forward happily accompanied by a small looking boy from 2, he seemed happy enough to have a go, and I was sure he would be put in one of those muscle suits that Glow got to wear yesterday,

"Remember to take the pictures, Glee" Glow made a camera motion with his hands,

"Yes, I know how to take a picture, thank you Glow" Ex led him and the other boy away. A few minutes later Ex came back and told us to get in the list that would take us to the Cornucopia, right next to the cornfield. Once we had all piled in and pressed the up button, I had a look at Glow's camera. It was heavy in my hands, and when I twisted a button at the top, something else popped out of the front, I assumed this was the thing that took the picture; the large, silver button on the top probably activated the taking of the picture. To test my theory I tried snapping a few shots, but a bright flash filled the lift for a second, startling a few people, "Sorry", the lift doors opened and I was first to shoot out of it, trying to hide my embarrassment.

As I was heading in the general direction of the field, a hand tapped me on the shoulder, "Umm, excuse me, is that a digital camera you have there?"

"Yeah, why?" I asked, the man had cropped yellow hair and purple eyebrows; he pulled at his collar nervously,

"It's just barely any have been seen for decades now, it must have cost you a fortune!" he lowered his voice to a whisper, "Can I touch it?"

Ex called over to us, "The players are ready! Come and see!" I ran away from the nervous man, hoping that he wouldn't follow me, he was sort of creepy. Ex took us to the middle of the cornfield where there was a circular clearing, Glow was at one end and the other boy was in the middle, they were both wearing the muscle suits,

"I'm going to get you, Cato!" Glow ran forward, in his hand he held a sharpened stone, one of the crude weapons from the arena. A few drops of water splattered against my jacket, I looked up, it was raining, just like the real thing...

"No you won't, you District 11 scum!" Cato ran forward and landed a punch in Glow's gut, he doubled over in agony. I knew that it wasn't real, but I couldn't help gripping my hands into fists, Xylsee, who was standing next to me smiled sweetly and said,

"Don't worry, it's only a game, remember?" I knew I would regret telling her that, I think she really took it the wrong way.

A howl of anguish took my attention back to the fight; Cato had taken the stone from Glow and was beating Glow with it, Glow couldn't fight back because his arms were pinned by his sides by Cato sitting on him. _Fight back!_ Why didn't he fight back? Cato raised the stone one more time; his light hair was plastered to his face by the rain, and brought the sharp end down through his head.

Everyone around me was clapping; Glow and the District 2 boy jumped up and bowed, which made everyone clap louder. Glow came bounding over to me, "Wasn't that so cool, Glee? I'm _so _going to be on the television when I'm older

"That's really good, Glow. Just make sure you don't do anything too grisly, I don't think my stomach could take it!" I laughed.

**A/N: I'm so sorry that I haven't updated for the last two days, I blame it on the homework and parents evening (before you ask, it was _very_ akward). I don't think I'll be able to finish for Friday, but I promise to update the last chapter as soon as I can :D. Thank you all for your support and I hope you can all spare a bit of love written in review form ;P.**


	8. Chapter 8

_Sunday:_

_Victor's battle plus re-enactments 9:00am – 5:30pm _

"The night before the last battle, the water was drained from the river and the ponds, which led the District 12 tributes to the cornucopia. They waited in the trees for the District 2 tribute to arrive, but were confused to as why he ran straight past them. What followed him was the newest creation of the Capitol laboratories, the tribute hounds!"

A loud cheer went up around me, the hounds had been a breakthrough for the capitol, it proved their ability to take something and replicate it so accurately that it could replace the real thing. I thought it was sweet; it gave the tributes one last chance in the arena, just not as humans.

"Katniss and Cato ran for the safety of the cornucopia, but before she started to climb Katniss remembered Peeta's wounds, he told her to climb while he caught up. Katniss sent some arrows into the pack and started to scale the golden horn where she discovered that the hounds could jump up to her. Once she and Peeta made it to the top, Cato grabbed Peeta and led him towards the edge. Peeta had received a serious bite from one of the hounds and was bleeding profusely, if left any longer he would either die from blood loss or oxygen starvation. With a shaking hand, Peeta drew a cross on Cato's hand in his own blood, Katniss let loose her arrow, and Cato fell to the mercy of the hounds."

The film flickered to a close and the lights blinked on, several people stretched out their arms, Ex called, "Come on, time to go into the arena!" We all followed him out into the corridor; I could hear Xylsee whispering excitedly to t her brother,

"I hope we get to look at the poisoned berries part with Katniss and Peeta. I know the Capitol didn't like it, but it was just a perfect example of District power! It could lead us the rebellion!" Rebellion? What rebellion? The only rebellion that I knew of was the one that ended seventy-four years ago,

"Shhh, Xylsee. We're not supposed to talk about it here, anyone could be listening!" Xylsee's brother shot me a warning glare, what was it my dad used to tell me? _Don't meddle with things you don't understand. _I didn't understand what the O'Connors were talking about, nor did I want to, this talk of rebellion sounded positively terrifying! I preferred staying safe and as far away from this kind of talk as possible.

__

We did re-enact the final few moments of the games. Xylsee and her brother were Katniss and Peeta, they did a brilliant job, if they weren't so fixated on keeping their original appearance they could have gone into acting, no one wanted someone looking the same in two different programs; that would be confusing. Anyway, when Xylsee and her brother were sat back to back, hands clasped together and berries held out in front of them, I don't think there was a dry eye anywhere, even Glow's eyes were filled with tears, I hadn't seen him cry since he lost his 'pet' worm when he was 5, he's 14 now so whatever acting magic those two seemed to be making was definitely working on us.

Ex interrupted the re-enactment with a teary, "I think that's enough for now" he sniffed, loudly, "Time to see the gift shop!"

__

Ex took us past the District 1 suite and through the mock reaping room, and then he pushed on a hidden door. It opened into a large room stacked to the ceiling with products related to the games that each of us could buy. Things ranged from small mockingjay pins to large intricate models of the arena itself, with figurines to move around.

"Everyone will receive a free tribute costume. Please, help yourself." Ex pointed out a large box of clothes; each suit was in a packet with our names on, when I unfolded mine, it appeared to fit perfectly.

"Hey Glow, look over there! They have the interview costumes!" I dragged Glow over to the other end of the store, the costumes sat on mannequins looking gorgeous,

"Ex, are they the actual clothes worn by the tributes?" I asked, my hand reached out and stroked the soft material of the dress worn by the girl from district 6,

"Oh no, we've made lots of these clothes so people can buy them. The originals have been put into the museum, back in the Capitol."

I thanked Ex and went over to look at the jewellery, it mainly consisted of variations of the mockingjay pin, but tucked away in the corner was Rue's good luck necklace. I picked it up carefully and read the price, 5 credits. That wasn't bad, considering the mockingjay necklace was 15 credits; I took it as a bargain! Glow was fawning over the arena model, playing with the characters,

"How much is it, Glow?" I asked him

"It's 100 credits, but I only have 50 in my wallet" Glow looked disappointed, I knew he really liked these kinds of things. He was always trying to make little figures back at home, most of them ended up in the bin, but some of the good ones he could flog for a good price at school.

"Here, I'll lend you the money for now, just so long as you pay back as soon as you can, alright?" I handed him the money, part of it was in guilt for stealing his money to gamble on the tributes, the other part of me wanted to see the big grin light up his face as he called Ex over and said,

"I'd like to buy this, please"

__

Later on, as we were packing our things, Glow turned to me and said,

"This week has been fun, hasn't it?" The smile was still on his face from when I lent him the money,

"Yeah it has been, maybe we can go again next year"

"Not next year, people are already booking in advance for the Quarter Quell"

"Well how about the 77th games, I'll be 18 then so I'll have a job and money to pay for it"

"That sounds great, Glee. Promise you will?"

"It's a deal" We shook hands. I picked up my bag and Glow picked up his, we walked out of our room for one final time and made our way towards the hovercraft.

**A/N: I found some time to write it! Wehay! Thank you all for reading this and a special thanks to my reviewers. If you have been a silent story stalker the whole way through, why don't you make my day by reviewing this final chapter of the story :D**


End file.
